Chapter Eleven: Winter's Search (Part Two)
Two Hundred Years Prior, Ice Maiden Territory
There it was. Kumiko looked down at the newly fashionable bracelet watch latched at her wrist. Right on schedule. Just as it was supposed to be. The Guidebook had never steered her wrong, and on that day it was more of the same.
Except it wasn't every day that she'd been given a task with an exact date and coordinate. That particular list of duties, tucked at the very back of the book, was about as vague as it was short. However, starkly separating it from the rest of the pages of reading material, its contents weren't up for personal interpretation.
Go to this location on this date. Retrieve the fallen package if its seekers do not find it, and place it where it will be found.
That was all it said.
Go here, do the thing.
She could do that.
Turning back up to the sky, the Wolf squinted at the little black dot that was steadily growing larger as it careened its way through the ice-laden clouds. In that barren land of white, she figured it safe to assume that dot to be her mysterious package. Because, honestly, just how often did the Ice Maiden race drop parcels from their keep in the skies?
Wait.
Kumiko's thoughts froze, even as the package fell closer and closer to earth like a bowling ball.
After opening the Guardian Guidebook, she'd had its information memorized within the first couple months, easy. But even now, some three hundred years later with only the occasional dabble in its depths thus far, she was still making new connections between casually mentioned events, stories, and tasks that had been laid out in a manner that made it seem as though they had nothing to do with each other.
She should really have known better by now.
Everything was connected.
Green eyes widened behind the black veil she'd worn to hide her face. The snap of realization was as hard as it was painful.
That wasn't a simple box of cookies falling from just around a single passenger plane's cruising altitude of 3,000 meters, where the islands of a civilization floated in solitude.
It certainly wasn't a care package from beyond, either.
It was a baby.
Instinctively, her body jerked forward; tendons popped at the unexpected speed of her lunge.
The wording had been specific. Retrieve the fallen package, the task had said. Fallen, not falling. And only after the people looking for it failed to find it.
Was her future self insane!? How could she allow herself to let it fall!? How could it possibly survive—!?
She needed to catch him!
But she didn't make it much farther than that thought.
A wide river appeared in front of her without warning, cutting off her path. Too fast. She wasn't going to be able to stop in time. At least, not in a pretty way. Tucking tail between legs and arms to face, the Ookami bit her lip and took the tumble shoulder first. The pain of dislocation was immediate, but far from her concern. It would heal. Bumps and scrapes would always heal.
It took the entire distance from where she dropped all the way to the water's edge for her body's momentum to slow to a complete stop.
Her head spun.
Train all you want to be an elegant, light on your feet demoness; there was nothing to stop the reflexes of sheer human panic.
With a groan, Kumiko pulled herself up to her knees to catch her breath. Just in time to see the black bundle fall into the center of the water's depths.
It landed with a little plunk, like a marble being dropped in a drinking glass.
And so it had fallen.
The Guidebook was never wrong.
"Did'ja hear that?"
Kumiko stiffened at the sound of the voice. A barrier sprang up around her. It wasn't invisible yet, not in the slightest, but its glimmering sheen was easy enough to overlook against the sparking backdrop of snow and sun reflecting on the surface of unfrozen water. Still, not taking any chances, the brown Wolf eased behind the nearest bush.
"Somethin' fell around here somewhere, I swear."
"Is this like tha fire thing? Last time we's here you swore the sky was a burnin.'"
"I swear, it was!" Kumiko held her breath when the two owners of the voices stepped up behind her. The shrub to her left began to rustle. "We're not alone in these feckin' woods. Lookit this tread! Whatever it was, it was right here!"
Abruptly, the rustling stopped. Kumiko stole a glimpse of the rattily clad man as he was jerked away by another.
Bandits.
Some very important bandits.
"Come on, stupid! It's the cold gettin' to ya tiny head. Yous not gonna find nothin'. Not even brimble berries. This place is dead. Ain't nothin' here."
There is! Kumiko thought with all her might. In the water! Look in the water!
They didn't. Of course they didn't; they had no reason to go for a polar bear swim in search of a noise that they only thought they might have heard. It was nonsense to even suggest that they might.
The voices of the two foul smelling demons grew quieter and more distant as she tried not to rip her hair out. All Kumiko could do was stay still and silent, staring in horror out at the calm waters of the river until they walked away.
One hand pressed firmly to her mouth, she checked the hands of that watch she was wearing.
It'd been almost one full minute since he'd gone under.
Demon babies were durable, but they weren't immortal.
Then, without even bothering to check if the coast was completely clear, the Demoness took the biggest breath she could hold and sprang over the steep, rocky edge and into the slow moving currents of the river. Her cloak was bulky—she probably should have taken it off first—and her tail pulled awkwardly, but she'd always been a strong swimmer thanks to classes at the community pool when she was little. And, luckily, she wasn't diving in completely blind. The blazing aura seeping through the cracks of that carefully sealed wrapping was a bitter and sharp beacon in the darkness, guiding her with the promise of misfortune.
Kumiko knew that aura didn't define the child and she didn't let it wrap her up in the negative intent it carried; it was only a manifestation of his heritage. He didn't choose to be born of such an impossible union. At such a tender age, he had no hand in the threads of fate or preconceived prejudices that were bound to warp his childhood.
In the future, she knew that he would learn to choose his own path instead of being swept away by the undertow of stereotype and expectation.
He was ultimately going to be the master of his own fate.
If he survived that first trial.
Arms stretched as far as they could reach forward, Kumiko's finger grasped a hold the ornate sutra wrappings of the swaddle. Compared to her wet clothes, the bundle was light. Then she kicked and dragged him to the surface as fast as her legs would take them. When land was once more beneath her toes, the disguised Priestess fell to her knees, fixed her dripping veil, and carefully lowered the parcel in her hands to inspect the status of her precious cargo.
Giant eyes with their beady red pupils blinked up at her like droplets of freshly spilled blood, not a bit phased by his near brush with death.
He was a tiny thing, even for a newborn, and he should have at least been crying from the wet alone, if not from the fall and the cold. Silence reigned as if he were an incarnation of winter itself. He stared at what little he could see of her eyes with curiosity. With Intelligence.
Then, when he determined that she wasn't going to throw him back into the river, he smiled. It was crooked, a devilish little grin.
Kumiko's heart shattered for the boy.
Again, from a distance, the canine heard a rustling in the underbrush. Two familiar voices followed. This time she wasn't about to let the pair of bandits catch her off guard. Vigilant and hyper aware of not only her surroundings, but of the original task she'd set out to accomplish that day, Kumiko carefully set the bundled infant on the ground near the water's shore, right at the end of the gouge she'd made in the dirt. She wiped a droplet of water from the baby's cheek before letting him go. A broken sprig of dead leaves made for a terrible and conspicuous cover. He was bound to be discovered.
"I'm tellin' ya, somethin's over here."
It tore her heart apart to just leave him there, but she knew it had to be done. There was no way she would have been able to take him with her—the last time she picked up an orphan in an attempt to fix history it didn't exactly go so well—but the thought of the childhood he would be forced to endure if she let him be was even more devastating. Kumiko looked at him for as long as she could; she watched as he reached an itty bitty hand out of his swaddle, not letting go of the jeweled necklace clutched in the other. He grabbed one of the leaves on the branch. It disintegrated at his touch. That fact seemed to astound him, so he did it again.
He was just so small and so innocent.
Perhaps…
Kumiko crouched down and slowly leaned forward to take the babe back into her arms.
Perhaps it would be different this time.
All he needed was a mother, right?
She was one of those.
"Hey you!"
The bandit startled Kumiko out of her maternal hypnosis and forced her to make a decision.
She fled.
Alone.
The bandits found the baby she'd abandoned and took it with them back to their camp where they'd fight with their leader about whether they should raise it or eat it.
And history continued, unchanged.
When Kumiko eventually took her leave of the Ice Maiden territory, it was with a heavy heart and two very empty, very cold hands.
Every life was a living, breathing piece of a greater puzzle—one that was going to come together whether she wanted it to or not. She doubted that would be the last atrocity she'd need to commit before the end of her tenure. It was part of the role she had to play. They all had their lives and fates to carry out in that world, in that timeline.
But, unfortunately, all lives were not created equal.
All fates were not just.
And time was nothing but a cruel joke.
Present Day
"Well crap." That was the first thing Yusuke said when his feet touched down on the other side of the hideously girly pink portal. "Nobody told me I was going to need a parka. That Shadow bastard couldn't have picked a warmer place to hang out in? I hear New Zealand's nice this time of year."
A gust of wind nearly hooked him forward. "Hey!" He shouted, looking up through the gnarled branches of the dead trees to the dense and hazy white atmosphere above. The little brown speck of a hawk was the size of a quarter by the time he locked on. Damn, that bird got real high real quick. He cupped a hand around his mouth for a makeshift megaphone. "Team leader didn't say 'go' yet!"
"Let him scout ahead." Kurama said from behind him, smooth voice at a far more cautious volume. "An extra eye in the sky will help us to find Kagami all the more quickly. Kagome did emphasize his skills as a lookout."
"Yeah, she also said he had to listen to everything I say." Scoffing at how quickly the unsociable bird guy broke that little agreement, the detective turned to his partner. Kurama had one knee in the ankle deep snow that surrounded them and his palm to the earth beneath. The shimmering gap between the realms was already closed and gone. It left behind nothing but the barest tickle of Kagome's energy at the redhead's back.
The bedazzled tear deposited them in the last place the Priestess had been able to sense the duplicate of Kurama's aura, but since that power of hers was primarily connected to people, not places, evenshe couldn't tell them where in Makai that actually was. Going back was going to be another matter entirely. They were stuck there until Kagome and the others finished their half of the mission and came back to retrieve them—or rescue them, depending on how hellish things were about to go down. He was relying on that return-home portal, because if it didn't open up that would mean that they needed to hoof it all the way back home on foot from wherever the heck they were just spit out. It could take days.
It would also mean that something bad happened to Kagome and the others on the other side, and Yusuke and Kurama would have no means to help. There was a lot of trust being thrown about on this mission, and he still wasn't quite sure how he felt about it. But it was there, he just needed to make sure they fulfilled their half of the plan.
And if worse came to worse, he could always contact Kuwabara on their communicators, if the oaf remembered to bring it along. If he didn't, Hiei was usually pretty good about keeping his on and at the ready—not that the little hothead would ever admit that out loud to anybody.
Yeah, everyone was going to be fine. They always got out of sticky situations and followed through with their missions in the end. Usually unscathed, except of course the few times that he—
Yusuke reached in his back pocket and blinked. He patted his butt, then the pockets in the front. A shake of his windbreaker told him that it was in fact just light enough to be a windbreaker, no less, no more.
Fuck.
He left his communicator on a dresser back at Genkai's, didn't he? Stupid.
Yusuke was just about to ask Kurama if he'd been a smart little graham cracker and remembered to being his communicator when the Fox spoke up. "Be on your guard, Yusuke." The Kitsune warned calmly and rose to his feet, brushing snow from his pant legs before it could melt much more into the fabric. "We've fallen into a trap."
"Well that's not totally ominous. I thought we wanted to fall in the trap."
"As a distraction, yes." Kurama paused. He followed the curve of Toru's flight pattern with glamoured green eyes before narrowing at the fog hiding most everything else from view. A muscle visibly tightened at his jaw. "Kagami is playing games. If my aura was here before, it no longer is now. However that is the least of our concerns. Had you remained partnered with Hiei, this terrain would have been ideal. With me, we are at a disadvantage."
The dot that was Toru disappeared.
Yusuke slid a foot in the white powder. "The ground is frozen." He surmised. "Probably not the best place for gardening."
A nod. "Frozen, infertile, and inhospitable. As well as being uninhabited." He pointed along their limited horizon line where the haze met the ground, creeping heavy in the air like steam in a bathroom. "This is not fog. They are clouds. We are on an island, Yusuke, floating high in the sky. One foul step and we walk off the very edge."
Realization lit the Mazoku's eyes. "Don't Ice Maidens live on a floating island covered in snow?"
"Not far from here, I would assume. However, on this particular island there is only the two of us, our new companion, and—"
"Kagami!" The sharp, accusatory voice of Toru shouted out as he reappeared high in the sky above them.
If Yusuke hadn't already shattered their element of surprise, that certainly did the trick. The cursed name reverberated across the still land. A burst of wind followed, strong and unrelenting as it forced away the moisture in the air. The two Spirit Detectives had to brace themselves against it or risk being swept from their feet to the unseen edge of the platform. The freshest layer of snow was blown clear away. Then the hawk dove head first, wings pinned tight and flat to his back.
"He's got the guy! Come on!" Yusuke hollered and sprinted through the thin wood. Visibility still wasn't perfect, but at least now they could make out the trees from the shrubs.
They heard the collision before they caught up to Toru and their quarry. The ground was a broken mess of frozen, upended dirt, muddied snow, and feathers, with the two beings grappled close in the center of it all. Massive unfurled wings mostly hid them from view. "Wait." Kurama's hand on his chest held Yusuke back from jumping right into the fray. Toru's foot slipped back on the unforgiving ground, turning them to the side and revealing the glint of knives locked hilt to hilt, then a woman.
Toru's seething rage did nothing to the humored expression of the Ice Maiden.
Curly, rich green hair that fell loose around her shoulders made her look more like a mermaid than a being that lived a heartless existence in the frozen tundra of Demon World. It was the silver eyes, lacking all empathy and warmth that belied the nature of her heritage.
To Yusuke and Kurama, she was a stranger.
Upon seeing the Detective and his teammate, the woman smirked. She ducked from her deadlock with the Bird and before Toru could recover from the sudden lack of pressure holding him upright, she kicked him square in the chest. He was pushed back hard and slid to a stop right between the Fox and the Mazoku.
"So I couldn't help but notice that the two of you have matching shivs." Yusuke quipped, not pulling his eyes from the demoness now circling their party. "Are you two buddy-buddy, or did it just happen to pick your pocket when you swan dove its ass into the ground?"
"They're stilettos. Both mine." The hawk coughed, trying to regain the breath that was knocked out of him. He didn't expressly admit that their enemy had taken one of his weapons in the three minutes that they've been there, but she totally took one of his weapons.
Hot damn, that had to be a new time record. And he was the new guy on the team, too. Double ouch. That was really embarrassing. As the team leader, Yusuke felt that he should probably reassure the hawk, really spread that positivity gospel and team spirit.
Instead, the words that came out of his mouth were, "I don't care what kind of shoes you wear in your spare time. I meant the knives, stupid."
Toru spared him a glare before focusing back on the Maiden.
What? The setup was perfect! He couldn't not say it! The bird literally flew right into that one. He was wielding stilettos for crying out loud! What a dork.
"Is this Kagami?" Kurama asked under his breath. The seed from his hair shifted from sprout to bud to whip in his fingertips. "Or is this another innocent bystander being manipulated by the true Kagami's power?"
All of the humor wilted from Yusuke's expression. He didn't like to think about that—that the puppet master he and Hiei killed before had been just some random sap caught up in a five century old feud by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the likelihood was high. Too high.
The reminder made him despise the Shadow Beast all the more.
"I don't know." Toru admitted.
Guilt from shedding innocent blood boiled to fury within Yusuke Urameshi until little wisps of blue aura filled the air around him. The thing before them that was shaped like an Ice Maiden stopped walking her circle. "Doesn't matter." The half demon punched a fist into his open palm and cracked his neck to the side. "We're bringing it in alive."
"Understood." Replied Kurama.
At that the woman with the emerald green hair laughed, reedy like a flute. From her feet the ice shot forth, quickly encompassing the ground with points of frozen stalagmites and threatening to coat the entire floating island in a sub-glacial forest. The pointed tip of the black dagger in her hand grew to a crystalline rapier. She locked eyes with the three men before her, and their battle began.
══════ With Reason ══════
Death and booze. That was the cocktail of scents that assaulted Hiei the moment he passed to the other side of the barrier ahead of the others. Blood, sweat, piss, power—they were all smells that clung to the winds in certain parts of the Demon Realm, usually the more wild territories. It stirred the warm fuzzies within him, a sort of childhood nostalgia that helped him to feel both on a razor's edge and completely at home. Just like the old days.
He didn't even need to look around to know that Kagome had led them right into the heart of the Forest of Fools.
High up in the canopies the vines grew so mossy and thick that they practically blocked out the light of the sun. The light that did reach the ground was green from the foliage, dying everything it touched in the sickly tint. Growing out of the ground like a medieval industrial weed just ahead of him was an old stone structure, its bricks also overrun with moss. Partway torn down, partway never finished in the first place, the standing walls of that building looked as if it'd been a popular bandit outpost for dozens of years, used and abandoned time and time again as nefarious groups passed through.
Yukina was inside, supposedly.
That had been the last place where Kagome had sensed the Ice Maiden's aura before it went completely offline. Just like when she had been kidnapped by that filth of a Human bastard, Tarukane, even the extra sensitive power of the Jagan was unable to feel her presence. Meaning one of two things: either there were wards keeping her well hidden…
Or she was dead.
If she was dead Hiei swore he would torture the Shikon Priestess. Spirit World be damned, he would rip her limb from limb until she whimpered her last sweet breath, and he would welcome any punishment that came from it.
Fed up with waiting a whole five seconds, the antsy Fire Apparition was just about to enter the compound to handle the situation on his own—hell knew he didn't need help—when his two tagalongs finally decided to drop in through the Miko's portal. It flickered closed behind the woman without as much as a wave of her hand.
Normally a rift like that between the realms would have taken the power of at least two highly trained and focused psychics or Spirit Guides to open. Even with the barrier dissolved it was an intense task. Yet the Vixen didn't even blink.
He would not be impressed by that.
She was the "Guardian of the Realms" and all that chaff. Obviously it came with the territory.
"He thinks he's being real funny, doesn't he?" Kuwabara growled from beneath the tree branch Hiei had perched himself on after taking in their location. He laughed with a bitter humor. "He takes Yukina and puts her in a castle? A castle! Of all the stupid places. What an idiot. Doesn't he know that the Prince always rescues his Princess in the fairy tales? It's the unwritten law of romance. He couldn'ta made it any easier for us. We've got this in the bag!"
Dropping down beside the Human, Hiei chuffed. "Save your gloating for after we've found the girl. First of all, we don't know if she is even here."
"After?" Kuwabara rounded on him, mocking. "What d'ya mean, after? Are you saying you haven't found her yet? Isn't that like the whole reason why you're on the rescue team in the first place? You're supposed to be some great finder! Our bloodhound from hell! What's wrong? Your freaky eyeball not screwed in right today? Fat load of help you're gonna be, shortie."
Already ticked off and high strung, Hiei bared his teeth and snapped. "As if you're going to be any more helpful. What can you even do now? Can you fight against the demons that fall beyond Koenma's pathetic little power ranking chart? The strongest thing you've ever faced was Sensui, and he's old news. You're outclasses on this mission and you'll only be a liability. You should return back home before you get yourself killed."
The lumbering redhead snatched him by his collar. Hiei didn't feel the need to jump away from his petty threat.
"Tell me that to my face, you little dirtwad."
"I just did."
"Enough." Kagome said, head cool as she pushed the two apart, trying to divert their attention. "You are both here because you two are the only ones right for the job. I need you to stay focused and work together." She cast Hiei a sort of sidelong, matronizing look. "Hiei, I get it. The two of you haven't fought side by side in a long time. But Kazuma hasn't been slacking off since you've been in Makai. Give him a chance, he'll surprise you."
Hiei scoffed. "We've never fought side by side."
Crossing his arms, Kuwabara countered. "You just brought up the fight with Sensui. What was that then, huh? There was a ton of side by side battle action goin' on there!"
"That doesn't count." The shorter demon snipped. "That was a battle royale."
"Stop kiddin' yourself! I've read that comic and that's not how battle royales work. We had each other's back, and we would have kicked Sensui's butt, too, if Yusuke hadn't shown up."
"We are obviously thinking of two very different fights."
Taking a sharp inhalation like the parental authority figure she'd been for the past five hundred years Kagome primed herself for scolding. "Chil—!" She started before Hiei cut her off, turning to her quicker than a frog catching a fly.
His eyes burned with red hot fury.
"You dare call me a child and I will leave to find Yukina on my own. It isn't as though I need your help."
Still fresh in his mind was the fact that she had been the one to save his life from the river when he was an infant. What, did she expect a metal from him? Gratitude? He squelched the thought along with the vile baggage that came with it. If she thought he owed her something now that she'd let that slip, she had another thing coming. If anything, she was the one who owed him.
The woman had just left him there.
Furious, Hiei snuffed that out that emotion too. He was not a child. He was most certainly not her child. And a hot temper wasn't going do himany good with finding Yukina.
"Dude, you're so touchy." Kuwabara commented.
The Priestess raised her hands in surrender.
"Men." She amended, and somehow the word felt like an even bigger insult to Hiei's pride. "We can bicker all we want later, but right now this is getting us nowhere. Kagami took Yukina to this location. We want to find her. That is our only goal. Yusuke and the others are off distracting Kagami—they're sticking their necks out so that we can have a better chance at success. Don't let that go to waste because you two couldn't settle your differences and work together nicely for once."
Grimacing, Kuwabara looked away from them, his entire body tense. Hiei stared at the stupid castle turrets over her shoulder. He could have already infiltrated the compound and been done with it already if he hadn't been stuck babysitting. But that damn conniving Fox had done something to him. Mentally? Physically? He didn't know.
He couldn't find a reason why his feet were even planted on the ground in front of her.
But they were, and he still wasn't moving
"Hiei, you can't sense her." Kagome said, restating the fact that was tearing his patience into little confetti sized bits. Gesturing to herself she added. "I can't sense her either. She's warded her too well." Then, she turned her full body to the Human mascot of their weird little group. "This is where we need you, Kazuma. You can tell us if Yukina is still here and where to find her."
She had to be kidding.
If he couldn't sense past the wards, and the Vixen couldn't sense past the wards—the same Kitsune women who was capable of sensing beyond the wards of his own Jagan eye—then why in the ever loving world would she possibly think that the Human buffoon would be capable of doing so?
Incredulous, Hiei scoffed. The sound gave away more humor than he had intended.
"Very funny Fox. You shouldn't give him such impossible tasks. It'll only make him feel more useless than he already is."
Affronted and bitter, Kuwabara yanked himself away from their huddle and turned to face the dilapidated castle. Hand rising out in front of himself, he closed his eyes in a mockery of concentration. As if that would aid him in the slightest.
"Step back shortie," He said, oozing with a confidence that made Hiei feel nauseous. "And watch a real man find the love of his life."
"This is ridiculous."
"Yeah." Kuwabara continued, ignoring the protests of the Fire Demon behind him. He looked back to meet Kagome's gaze with a tight and serious grin. "It's there. She's definitely here. The signal's a little twisty turvy, but she's upstairs. I swear my life on it."
Kagome nodded, accepting his word as the gospel truth.
"And you're just going to believe that?" Hiei grit his teeth. "We're just going to have Kuwabara hold up his hand and point? Incredible. Why in the world are we waiting for him to lead the way?"
Everything about that was insane.
The Priestess didn't even look down at him. She just smiled at the oaf. "I wanted to make sure she was actually here first before we wasted time running in blind."
"And what could he possibly have that gives him an ability beyond the limitations of you and I?"
Kuwabara spun on his heels to raise his hand in the face of the much shorter man. He held out his little finger as if he were holding a dainty cup of tea or extending a promise between friends. Hiei refrained from smacking it away like he wanted to, but he did lean back in disgust. With an expression as proud as it was scathing the Human said, "I have a pinky string of love connecting me to Yukina. Don't you ever question the power of my love."
Hiei was stunned to silence by the sheer idiocy of the claim.
And then, as if he hadn't just claimed that there was a magical, invisible string tied around his finger, Kuwabara started trudging towards the rotten doors of the castle entrance. Kagome followed. Hiei shot her a look as she passed. Flummoxed, he made a gesture towards the bobbing orange pompadour of the Human to get across a cynical question of Kagome's sanity.
She shrugged.
"It works. I'm not going to question it."
Stifling a growl, Hiei refrained from pinching the bridge of his nose where he was beginning to feel the onset of a headache. They hadn't even made it inside yet and already he wanted to run his teammates through with a sword.
Once she'd gotten to where the litter from bandit encampments past was strewn about—bottles, bloodied scraps of cloth, Hiei even spotted the occasional used needle—Kagome glanced at him from over his shoulder. She'd suddenly grown serious. Her ears were upright and alert, her tail very still. She was ready for battle; ready to enact their half of the plan.
Good. Finally. So was he.
Nodding, Hiei flit upwards.
Pushing off from a tree branch mid leap, the agile little Youkai slipped into a shattered window on the building's third story. Stained glass snapped with a crystalline clatter and flew with him through the air when the hole wasn't quite wide enough. He rolled into a crouch in a hallway, just nearly missing a crater in the floor three more steps beyond. Scorching and claw marks of a creature long since dead had ripped away the roof there, leaving room for a tree to start growing up from the second floor.
Before the two below could crowd him on that little shrapnel covered ledge, Hiei leapt across to the other side of the hall, to a place where the stability of the structure seemed to be a little bit more reliable. A pretty pink portal appeared at his back the second his feet touched down, and he took an indifferent step to the side so that he wasn't right there when Kuwabara inevitably came barreling in.
Sure enough, the tall Human jumped through the portal first, flaming yellow spirit sword flailed threateningly in the air above him. More cautiously Kagome stepped through second, eyes studying her footfalls on the floor beams.
Infiltration successful.
A maneuver like that would have been helpful to have back at Maze castle.
"Talk about an easy invasion." Kuwabara huffed and put his sword away. The floor beneath his feet creaked against his weight. "There weren't even any guards at the front gate."
"This obviously isn't where he lives. It's just a convenient remote location to use."
"I don't think Kagami would have guards at his home, either. He's more of a loner."
"Well for a loner he's always packin' a lot of friends. I at least expected some of his worm things."
"The lesser demons."
"Hn."
There was that to consider. However, if everything went the way the Kitsune had predicted, they wouldn't be dealing with Kagami or his mindless horde of merry beasts.
They needed to be on the lookout for his puppet.
There was a clink and shatter behind them as a shard of glass fell off the ledge of the hole in the floor and broke on the planks below. Like a spookable little deer, Kuwabara jumped at the sound and raised his fists, ready to fight.
"Kazuma." Kagome said quietly, but not quietly enough to be a whisper. "It's fine. Nobody's here."
"Right." He tried to chuckle, obviously embarrassed with himself.
She was right. There wasn't anything up there. Hiei slowed the beating of his own heart to listen. The loudest thing in that hall was Kuwabara, naturally, but beyond the priestess' slight exhalations there was nothing more. Neither sound nor sight of life. Not even a lizard crawling along the cool stone walls in the dingy hot light.
That couldn't have been right.
"You're wrong." Hiei stated adamantly. "Yukina is up here."
"Right." Kuwabara repeated quieter, reluctantly agreeing. He stared down at his pinky finger.
He didn't say anything more.
Were they… too late?
Not bothering to ask the Fox's permission, Hiei started down the length of the hallway, peering into the open or missing doors of each room as he passed. The doors that had miraculously remained upright and shut over the years were promptly kicked down. Kuwabara followed after and quickly joined suit, with Kagome trailing slower behind them. It was strange that she wasn't stopping them from making such a clatter in the enemy's territory. Kurama would have thrown a hissy fit. But then again, there wasn't exactly anything normal about the Kitsune Miko.
At one point between empty rooms, Hiei stopped to get a quick look at the woman. She seemed to be completely transfixed in thought with her eyebrows pinched low and, unfortunately, the Apparition didn't need to be able to read her mind to figure out just what she was thinking.
Maybe this was only where Kagami had placed the wards on Yukina's power and aura before leaving her in another location. A location that they might never find.
Hiei wasn't a fool. He'd been on the opposite side of the coin long enough to know what a secondary location meant.
It meant the dumping of a body, not the holding of a prisoner.
"No." He said out loud. "She's here!" Fire engulfed Hiei's forearm at the raise of his voice and the next door that dared stand in his way was quickly turned to ash with his punch.
"Yukina!" Kuwabara called out down the hall, subtly long thrown out the window. "We're here! Don't worry, we're coming for you!"
"Wait." The Priestess said it so quietly that both of the detectives nearly missed it. "Wait." She said again, much louder, pulling back their attention. She was standing so still that the movement of her hair could have only been caused by a current of invisible power laced around her. When her eyes opened they were glowing blue and fierce. She'd been canvassing the building with that hidden aura of hers.
"There's magic in here."
"Where?!" Kuwabara demanded.
But Hiei was already sprinting further down the hallway. Kagome gave chase. Feet pounded against the old floors. They took a sharp left and Hiei let his third eye fly open. It pulsed with the purple taint of demon energy as he scanned the entire half of the castle that was still standing. Nothing. What was it she had sensed?!
A hand grabbed his shoulder, pulling him to an abrupt stop, and suddenly Hiei felt his power spike.
It was like she'd stuck him with the negative end of a jumper cable.
That's when he sensed it—the most innocuous of weaves, hidden tightly beneath runes and wards, but it was there.
Over his shoulder Hiei stared at the older Fox woman, the woman who had guaranteed his survival nearly two hundred years prior. She met his gaze with a hesitant one of her own and dropped her hand. The lack of contact felt like plunging into ice water, but he wasn't sure if that was from her powers or from a memory.
"Got it?" She asked.
Silently, wondering what the hell she had just done to him, Hiei nodded.
"Good. Let's go."
"Hey, wait up you guys!" Kuwabara called after them when they darted off again. "I've only got Human legs!"
Kagome slowed down for the man's sake, but Hiei offered no such handicap. With the sensation of power and a mental map fresh in his head, the Fire Demon disappeared in a flash of black. Down three more halls and to the right there was a stairwell. It was missing most of its steps, but Hiei didn't need steps to be able to reach the top landing.
And there it was. A single protective ward was stuck to the wood of the door, etched over with an ancient spell that'd been recently carved into the grain by either a knife or claws. The power emanating from it was so slight he would have missed it completely.
They were in the right place.
She was there. She was alive.
He knew by the frost creeping from beneath the crack of the doorframe.
Fire was summoned to him once more, only Hiei didn't need an entire forearm's worth of it, just a flicker in his palm was enough to catch the edge of the paper sutra. The spell snapped in a pop like a firework just as Kagome and Kuwabara rounded the corner.
In a feat of agility, Kuwabara bound up the steps, leapt over the missing gap, and rammed his shoulder into the door just as Hiei kicked it in. Kuwabara went stumbling into the room, sliding when his feet landed on a patch of ice. "Yukina!" He hollered as he slid.
With a bit more grace, the Forbidden Child sprang forward and drew forth his sword, scouring the round room for threat. The ice melted beneath the soles of his boots. His eyes landed on the single chair in the center of the large and otherwise empty space.
She was faced away from him, arms and legs bound. The spikes surrounding her grew outwards like the thorns of a crystal flower. The entire room had been transformed into a frozen tundra. Above her, a wooden chandelier had been thoroughly encased in ice, its candles snuffed out and their spilling wax frozen in time.
"Kuwabara?" The ice maiden's small voice spoke up from her seat, tired and timid. "Is it really you or is this another trick?"
The Human found purchase against the opposite wall and scrambled to his feet, excitement and relief evident in every fiber of his being. It was disgusting. "It's really me! Don't you worry, you're safe now. I wasn't going to rest until we got you home. We'll make that Shadow guy pay for what he did, I promise. But first we gotta get you outta here. We…"
Kuwabara moved forward to kneel before the girl he loved as if she were his queen.
Encasing her hands with his own, he scowled.
With a single slice of his blade, Hiei cut her bindings free from the chair.
Kagome strode surely into the room, past Hiei, and grabbed Kuwabara's large wrist just as he was helping the tiny young woman to her feet.
Kuwabara was forced to let one hand go.
"Miss Ka-Kagome." The girl stuttered and then she twisted to look around her. "And Mr. Hiei too." Her freed hand flew to her face to cover her mouth, moisture beginning to well in her eyes. "I'm so relieved. You've all come for me."
Much to Hiei's surprise, the Kitsune's face was stripped of all the warmth he'd expected from her. Once more becoming the warrior he'd fought in the Shrine courtyard, she stared down her nose at his sister in a way that made Hiei feel quite threatened. In his hands his grip tightened on the tattered hilt of his sword.
"Who is your brother?" The Priestess didn't ask it; she demanded it.
The question itself was a punch to his gut.
"Fox." He seethed in warning.
"Yukina." She repeated, not sparing him a look as she trained her cold blue stare. "Who is your brother?"
"I… I don't know." The ice maiden answered meekly, shrinking under the taller woman's hard inspection. "I'm still searching for him. We haven't yet found any clues and I still do not know who he is." She tried to pull her other arm from Kuwabara's tightening grip. "What's going on? You're frightening me. Please, Kuwabara. It hurts."
Hiei looked at the human's huge hands digging white pivots in the Ice Maiden's delicate flesh. The brute's entire arm was shaking.
Still staring at that cursed pinky of his, Kuwabara's expression looked absolutely shattered.
"Yukina calls me Kazuma." He whispered.
"You're not Yukina." Came Kagome's voice from somewhere far away, beyond the blood rushing in Hiei's ears.
"You bastard." Kuwabara cursed under his breath so venomously, so laced with the silent chill of a grim reaper's scythe that Hiei knew he had to be hearing things. "Hiei. Kagome's right. This isn't—"
The thunder of an explosion erupted around them just as their captive Yukina turned to face him, her eyes wide with very real fear. The ice in the room shattered. From the turret's curved bay of broken windows spewed an army of mindless lesser demons. From behind them too, from the door. Their collective screeches sounded like the pits of hell. The miasma seeping from their pores was thick and suffocating.
Kagome collapsed to her knees, holding her head against some unseen pain, a ring of blue fire encircling her.
Kuwabara dropped Yukina's arm to form his sword.
It all happened so quickly. He was the fastest of them all, and yet Hiei found himself completely incapable of movement. He was filled with an unfathomable horror as his sister stepped past the Kitsune writhing on the ground, towards him. She was so perfectly Yukina down to every last movement, every strand of perfectly tousled hair. The porcelain of her skin, the crystalline jewels of her matching red eyes. Her aura, her scent. What they were claiming didn't make sense to Hiei. His third eye assured him that they were wrong, that she was Yukina, that he needed to protect the delicate girl before him.
His pupils shrinking to pinpricks, Yukina started to reach forward to cup his face.
He'd heard the others' accounts on the shadow demon's replication of Kurama's form, but there was no feasible way it was that perfect. There had to have been a seam somewhere. A telltale sign. No. That was Yukina. And she was about to be in the heart of a battle—she was in danger.
He needed to get her out of there.
Then he would murder every other living beast in that blood forsaken castle.
"Hiei!" Kuwabara shouted.
The Ice Maiden stilled, fingers just shy of grazing his face.
Hiei tore his eyes away from hers to stare at Kagome in disbelief.
She'd broken free from whatever spell she'd been put on and was wiping blood from the corner of her mouth. In her other outstretched hand was a blinding glow of purple energy. Wild yet refined. Strong and blinding against his Jagan. The swarming lesser demons didn't dare get close. They cried, howled, and snarled, but not a single one of them moved forward.
They filled the perimeter of the entire room.
"A fire illusion. Did you learn that one from Shippo? As much as I love reliving the day of Hansha's death, that's something I can do without your help." Her hand closed into a fist and she twisted it upright as if she were holding a rod. Then the bloody fingers of her right plucked an invisible string from the air and pulled it back to her cheek. The energy took the form of a flaming bow. "Tell us where the real Yukina is or I will shoot you in the back right now."
The perfect, frightened little woman in front of him closed her eyes. And then, much to Hiei's absolute disbelief, she smiled. It was a wicked and twisted thing on the mouth of such a pure soul.
There was something fundamentally wrong with the universe in that moment.
Leaping backwards as far away from the Ice Maiden as he could without slamming his back into the wall of demons that had formed a barrier behind him, Hiei diverted his anger to that writing mass. With a single slash of his blade fifteen of the grotesque creatures fell, cut clean in half, yet still none made to attack. Fifteen more replaced the dead. On the opposite end of the room, Kuwabara had stopped doing that very same futile thing to watch the confrontation between Kagome and Yukina.
He was trembling.
Disgusted with himself, Hiei realized that he was as well.
The Fire Demon found himself pointing his sword in Kagome's direction. "She's being controlled!" He barked, begging it to be true. Control he could accept. Control he could fight against.
"That's not Yukina!" Kagome and Kuwabara shouted back at him simultaneously.
Stepping forward, Kuwabara shoved his fucking finger in the air again. "She's here. But that. Isn't. Her."
Hiei staggered. He didn't know what to believe. His teammates? His own senses? What the hell was wrong with him!?
Metal clattered to stone as his sword fell to the ground at his feet.
A laugh came from Yukina's small frame, rougher than it should have been. "I didn't realize how quickly your friends would betray you, Kagome. All for what? A single girl? Doesn't this feel familiar?"
Flames black as soot lit in Hiei's hands. He stared down at them as the fire quickly engulfed both of his forearms. Then he sprang forward.
Betrayal?
The fool had no idea who he was messing with.
"You bastard!" Hiei shouted as a battle cry.
The Kagemono caught his burning fist before it could tear a hole through the petite chest of the maiden, ice shielding her hand from the flame. It slid them far back across the floor. As soon as the ice was melted by the heat it was replaced with more. More. More. The stiff frost threatened to consume his entire arm. Beneath his skin, the dragon shifted, pulled, demanded to be set free to incinerate the threat.
But he couldn't release it. Not in such a small space. To release the dragon would be certain suicide.
Hiei would survive it. He didn't have much doubt about that. And the Kitsune was smart enough to evade it. The Human oaf, though? Hiei knew that if they returned to the Human world with the crispy husk of Kuwabara he would certainly have to face down Yusuke in a battle to the death. That was the suicidal bit that he wanted to avoid.
Not to mention his sister—his real sister, wherever the hell she was—actually liked the son of a bitch for some ludicrous reason.
She could also be in the crossfire without him even knowing.
And hurting Yukina was something that he vowed he would never do.
"Kuwabara!" Hiei yelled to get the lummock's attention.
"Right!" The carrot top shouted back before rushing them, sword held high. "Spirit Sword!" He aimed at the girl. He came so close.
So damn close.
Yukina turned to him with a gasp.
And just like that, the crackling yellow of Kuwabara's electric spiritual energy evaporated. His knees took a beating when he dropped to the floor.
"I… I can't do it." He explained, voice trembling. "I know it isn't her! I just…"
Annoyingly enough, Hiei couldn't blame him.
Yukina shifted her foot. Ice chased out from beneath her like a wave, crashing around Kuwabara's legs to hold him captive. He made a sound of distress before he started shouting, as if obscenities were going to clear the prison away.
Had the true power of an Ice Maiden always been so immense and intimidating?
Was that what Yukina was capable of?
Or were they simply too caught off guard because it was Yukina's face pulling the trigger?
Just then a shocking bolt of hot-bright purple light streaked between Hiei and the Shadow Beast, nearly missing his nose.
"Watch where you're aiming woman!" Hiei bit out. He knew that Kagome was more than capable of making her power invisible. Was it for his benefit that she was lit up, or was it for intimidation?
The Fox ignored him. "Your fight is with me, Kagami! Not them!"
"It's as if you don't even know me, Kagome." Yukina's smile grew cocky as she pinned down Hiei's second fist. "Has it really been so long? No, my fight is not with them. I'd prefer not to harm anyone undeserving, but you keep insisting on putting them in my way. I can't help it if they're in my way. Him on the other hand... You and I both know why he needs to die."
Eyes narrowing, Hiei shot a glance at Kagome.
Again, she avoided looking at him.
He who?
Him as in Hiei? He had no qualms with any Shadow Beasts before that week. No, the insinuation in the word said it had to be someone else.
Yukina laughed; the sound normally as pure as a wind chime on a winter's day came out tainted with a husky mockery. "I see now! You haven't told them! Oh, isn't it fantastic when things come full circle?"
"Would you just talk straight like normal people?!" Kuwabara demanded. He'd wiggled an arm free and started chipping away at his ice cocoon with a little spirit dagger. "All these riddles give me a headache! Just tell us where the hell you put Yukina!"
Hiei hadn't even realized that the ice from her palms had crept down his torso and around his calves until the Kagemono stepped away, leaving him frozen midair. The fool shouldn't have stopped. Shouldn't have let up on her—his—barrage of power. Didn't he know that it was only a matter of seconds until Hiei's burning aura made the ice brittle enough to crack?
"She's safe." Kagami told Kagome instead of addressing Kuwabara. "I haven't harmed a single hair on her head. I'm not the monster in this. We both know that, don't we? What happened with the Wolf was a shame, but that was your fault. And this? How else was I going to get your attention? How else was I going to get you to stop dicking around and face me with your full power? I won't have you coddle me, Kagome. I'm not a child under your wing any longer. I will face you and prove to you that I am worthy of my revenge! Once, that is, you stop trembling. Is that fear? Please tell me that's fear. The nose of an Ice Maiden is really not the best."
It was slight, but the Priestess really was shaking. Hiei couldn't tell with what emotion, she'd left her face blank and as cold as the ice that surrounded them. Each one of her controlled breaths came out in small puffs of frigid condensation.
"Kagome." He demanded her attention. "Shoot him."
"Oh yes, please do that." The evil Yukina clone chortled. "Shoot me with your arrow. And when I dodge, it will land in the chest of your spiky haired friend behind me. Wouldn't it be wonderfully coincidental if you shot him through the heart?"
"You got mouthy, Kagami." Kagome said, trying to remain impassive. It would have been convincing, too, if the ever loving fury of the underworld wasn't dancing within the flaming mass of her aura. Kagami must have stepped on one nerve too many. "When did that happen?"
The Shadow Beast shrugged before taking a few steps forward. "Shortly after discovering that I truly am the last of my kind, I suppose. You've done Makai a great service for that." He began to clap, Yukina's hands making the tiniest of noises. "Good on you, we truly were the scurge of the demon races."
For the briefest of moments Kagome flicked her eyes to Hiei. There was a spark in them, the spark of a plan. She was stalling for time. That stupid, crazy Fox. She was brilliant. There. He admitted it. He nodded in understanding, feeling the ice beneath him growing weaker and weaker.
"Just shoot him already!" Kuwabara yelled from behind Kagome's back. "So what if he dodges! Hiei's always been kind of an asshole anyway."
Idiot. Hiei fought back a growl. He was going to give them away!
But… no wait. That was exactly what they needed.
Kuwabara shot him a grimace. Perhaps the fool wasn't so much of a fool after all.
If was dramatics Kagami wanted, they could certainly oblige.
He countered the orange haired Human with a glare.
"We're supposed to be on the same side." The fire apparition barked. "Or did you forget? Is the cold killing off what little brain cells you have left?"
"How can we be so sure yer still on our side!? He touched you! I saw it! Hiei's under the Shadow guy's control now, Kagome! We can't trust him! Shoot him!"
"Don't shoot me, you ruddy Vixen! Shoot Kagami!"
Amusement crossed Yukina's darkened features.
"Enough!" Kagome snapped, the echo of her yell being absorbed by the fleshy wall of the demons surrounding them. The bow in her hands made an electric crackle when she straightened it again to fix on the Shadow Beast and her fiery companion behind him. She took in a shaky breath before whispering, "I'm sorry Hiei. But I have to try."
In a mass of gathered power, her arrow flew loose.
Kagami leapt from the path of the incoming blast. It was in that same split second that Hiei ripped free from the ice binding him. Dashing forward, he grabbed a hold of Yukina's ankle, hellfire still burning in his palms. Kagome's attack took out the better half of the wall behind them, demon minions included. Yukina screeched in agony.
Few things were capable of ripping Hiei's still beating heart from his chest and puncturing it with ten thousand needles. That noise was one of them.
She isn't Yukina, the black clad demon needed to remind himself.
Still, he couldn't endure the sound very long.
He was forced to let go.
"You dirty little urchin!" Ice MaidenKagami cursed once there was some distance between them.
Heh.
Hiei had been called worse.
But… never by the likeness of his own sister.
"Take off that face. You look ridiculous."
Her lips quirked at that.
Sensually, the Ice Demoness grazed her hands up the curves of her body, hidden by her disheveled kimono. Stopping at her neck, she batted her eyelashes.
"Does this disturb you, Mr. Hiei?" She asked, voice small and timid.
Fucking hell, yes. Yes it disturbed him.
He suppressed his shudder of revolution and did a fantastic job of keeping a cold face.
"Change out of her body, you sicko! We can't fight you seriously with you lookin' like that!" Kuwabara piped up, almost perfectly replicating Hiei's own thoughts.
Without warning, Kagome loosed another arrow, and then another in quick succession. With the dexterity of a cat, the Yukina clone avoided each one. Hole by gaping hole, the stone of the walls were blown clear away. The Priestess was going to bring down the turret roof if she kept that up.
Looking around at the vile smelling lesser monsters that still haven't been given the command to attack, Hiei wondered if that was the very intention.
Kuwabara had nearly chipped himself free. Just one more leg to go. But Kagami and Kagome's little game of cat and mouse was heading straight towards him.
Hiei signed.
He was going to have to save the buffoon, wasn't he?
Hoping he wouldn't soon come to regret the decision, the Fire Demon made a mad dash for the other side of the room. He snatched up his trusty blade from the ground. "Kuwabara!" He bellowed. Hoping to flip a light bulb in the dark, he started to say the catchphrases of one of Human's favorite tricks. "Spirit Sword get…!"
The redhead's eyes widened with realization. Then he grinned like a rabid dog.
"Spirit Sword, get longer!" He shouted, aiming for the ground.
The force of the energy pried him free from the ice and pole vaulted him high into the air. Hiei jumped up to join him. Side by side the two raised their swords against the cornered Shadow Beast, screaming in tandem as they made their decent.
They would have had him too, if the slippery bastard hadn't opened a portal at the very last second before they hit the ground.
Just before her next arrow could be loosed to hit the two boys, Kagome dropped the Spirit Bow. The power dissipated in the air, leaving behind the crisp stench of purity. She spun, quick on her heels when their target reappeared behind her. Raising both hands, she let out a concentrated pulse of demonic energy that shook the entire structure of the castle.
Again, Kagami slipped through space to avoid the attack like a snake.
It brought down in the last major supporting wall of the room, leaving only a thin frame.
"Stop doing that and let us hit you!" Kuwabara shouted.
"Jump!" Hiei warned when a huge slab of stone from the roof above them fell from its rafters. Kuwabara complied without protest and jumped clear out of the way. Dust filled the air, grey like the castle walls and thick like a desert storm.
"That was quite the impressive show of—" Whatever the Kagemono was about to praise them on was cut off short when he winced. The Ice Maiden raised a hand to her temple and scowled. Hiei couldn't help but notice that the sick fucker was favoring his injured leg.
What the hell was wrong with that demon?
"I knew I should have used the taller one. A mistake on my part. But so soon?" Kagami muttered under Yukina'sbreath. He looked disturbed. Then, almost as if forgetting that they were in the room with him, Kagami turned back to Kagome with a startled expression. He offered her an almost regretful smile, if he was even capable of such a thing.
"As much as I would enjoy finishing this here, I have other, equally important matters to attend to. We all have to make choices. You understand. I'm sure I'll see you again soon."
The Kagemono split one more rift in the fabric of reality.
"No, Kagami, wait!" Kagome called after Yukina's doppelganger, but she was already gone. Through the portal to some far off location. The priestess pulled her hair, ears pinned to her head. "Damn it!"
"What the heck!?" Kuwabara cursed. "That's it!? He's gone!? Just like that!?"
"Where the hell did he go?" Hiei demanded in a tone of voice capable cleanly slicing through ballistics proof glass.
The Kitsune swallowed. Tail tightly wrapped around her thigh, she didn't turn to look at them.
"He's gone after Yusuke's team."
"And exactly why would he do that?" Hiei didn't hid the accusation in his voice. There was something she'd kept from them. Something potentially dangerous.
"We've got to go after him! He's still Yukina, right? Can't you follow him? Follow her aura?"
"Potentially? Yes. But we're not going to."
She looked around them at the mass of lesser demons that only continued to grow despite the many they'd already killed. They filled in the spaces of in the walls, blocking out the Makai sunlight. What few stones that still held up the precarious roof shifted under their movement, sending hunks of rock and wooden supports down to the floor. Soon the entire roof would follow, causing an unpredictable chain reaction of damage to the already unstable building.
Kagome stepped back until she bumped into the shoulders of Hiei and Kuwabara at the center of the room.
Their door back down the steps was blocked.
"Yusuke and the others are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves." She said decidedly, giving the men no room for their input. "Right now we need to worry about ourselves and Yukina. She's still here. We just need to find her. Before they do."
Taking that as their cue, the hoard surrounding them sprang forward and attacked.
══ Inuyasha X Yu Yu Hakusho ══
Chapter Twelve: End
